Short Essay on Currents of Pacific Ocean

In the Pacific Ocean, the general pattern of circulation is similar to that of Atlantic Ocean.

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In the Equatorial belt of the Pacific Ocean, two streams of equatorial currents flows across the ocean from the Central American coast in the east to Philippines Islands in the West Pacific Ocean.

Between the two-the North Equatorial Current and South Equatorial Current-flows a counter current from west to east.

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The North Equatorial Current turns northwards and flows along the Philippines Islands, Taiwan and Japan to form the warm Kuro Shio or Kuro Siwo Current.

From the southeast coast of Japan, the Kuroshio Current comes under the influence of Westerlies and flows right across the ocean as North Pacific Current.

After reaching the west coast of North America, North Pacific Current bifurcates into two branches. The northern branch flows anticlockwise along the coast of British Columbia and is known as the Alaska Current. The warm waters of this current help to keep the Alaska coast ice free in winter.

The other branch of the North Pacific Current moves southward along the coast of California as the Cold Californian Current. It eventually joins the North Equatorial Current to complete the cycle.

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In the North Pacific Ocean, two cold currents flow from the Arctic Ocean-Oya Siwo Current and Okhotsk Current.

The cold Oya Shio/Siwo Current flows along the east coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula. The cold Okhotsk Current flows past Sakhalin to merge with the Oya Siwo Current near Hokkaido Island. It later merges with Kuro Siwo Current and sinks beneath the warm water.

In the South Pacific Ocean, the South Equatorial Current flows in the anticlockwise direction and turns southwards as the East Australian Current.

East Australian Current meets the cold South Pacific Current near Tasmania, which flows from west to east.

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On reaching the southwestern coast of South America, South Pacific Current turns northwards as the cold Peru Current (Humboldt Current). The cold Current along the Peruvian coast is responsible for making the coast of Chile and Peru rainless.

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